When it comes to the year 1969 there’s not really that much to add to what’s in the book so just one entry for this year instead of two. In quick succession I picked up my exam certificates for the O levels I’d taken the year before as shown above, stayed on another year at school to retake my Maths and Physics O level exams in order to get into college, left school then went to college, and I had a proper date with a girl for the very first time.
Actually there is one other thing worth mentioning. If you want to know what a seventeen-year-old teenager looks like just after finding out his father isn’t his real dad then look no further than the image above. And dig those sideburns while you’re at it.
I’m on safer ground when it comes to the three things that I have relied on when the going gets tough, namely music, TV and films. I must have been busy with reality that year because I can only recall having been to the cinema about twelve times in all.
I have to say “McKenna’s Gold” is probably one of the worst Westerns I’ve ever seen but the swimming sequence featuring Julie ‘Catwoman’ Newmar still resonates after all these years. No images from that bit I’m afraid. I don’t want to leave myself open to being cancelled for objectifying the female form (there’s loads of photos on Google though).
No escaping Clint Eastwood movies now that he’d left “Rawhide” well and truly behind him, and I saw these two within a couple of weeks of each other. “Coogan’s Bluff” inspired the TV series “McCloud” whilst “Hang ‘Em High” was itself inspired by “The OxBow Incident”. Don’t say you never learn anything from this blog.
There’s cool, there’s real cool and then there’s Steve McQueen. The character he played in “Bullitt” appears to be so reluctant to indulge in conversation you wonder at times if there’s not actually something wrong with him but, in a strange way, even that’s cool too. Best car chase ever – until “The French Connection” a few years later.
“The Bridge at Remagen” was a surprisingly good film, even if it did suffer from that annoying thing actors do when playing a Nazi, namely speaking English with what they think passes for a German accent. As for “The Virgin Soldiers”, I thought the book was much better than the film but I’m sure it had its moments, even if I can’t’ quite remember any right now.
I think I must have been in a real bad mood at this point because I wasn’t a great fan of “Once Upon A Time in the West” when it was first released. I thought the opening sequence was probably the best part of the film but then I felt the story kind of meandered along for another two-and-a-half hours and I lost interest. Over the years of course it has gained classic cult status but there’s still a little voice inside my head that maintains “The Good the Bad and the Ugly” is the best of the Leone Westerns. Great Morricone soundtrack though.
“Where’s Jack?” is a landmark film for me as it was the first time I accompanied a young lady to the cinema. I was so overjoyed at the thought of finally finding myself in the company of a real girl in the dimly lit back row of Dreamland cinema I even paid for her ticket. The downside was that the film starred Tommy Steele but, seeing as I had absolutely no interest in what was happening on the screen, which was a big first for me, that’s kind of a moot point.
“Star Trek” was the most feted TV show of the year and no matter what anyone else thinks, the original version was most definitely the best of the bunch. Accept no substitute. I loved it from the very first episode I saw which was entitled “Where No Man Has Gone Before”. I loved it so much I bought the Bantam fotonovel which was published ten years later.
Two comedy shows debuted in 1969, both notorious for different reasons. The first was “Curry and Chips”, which I write about in the book, and “Monty Python”, the first series of which went way over my head, meaning I probably wasn’t aligned with the zeitgeist of the late 1960s at that point in time.
I did, however, like “Up Pompeii” with Frankie Howard. Can’t imagine why though.
PS If I’m not mistaken I think the lady in the photo above is Valerie Leon and I ended up getting her autograph nearly thirty years later. You know, life really is strange at times.
By the way, apologies for the late posting but there’s a pandemic on at the moment in case you haven’t noticed. Everyone else appears to be using that as an excuse so now it’s my turn. See you again (hopefully) in a couple of weeks.
Steve Mayhew 